Cosmic Sitcom™

An Internet fan film stands toe-to-toe with more expensive studio productions, pointing the way to releasing the chokehold on quality exerted by needing to succeed in mass media.

While record labels continue to flail about for a new business model, it turns out they were making stupid mistakes long before the Web.

Fans’ creative efforts set off 2001’s Potter War, in which Warner Brothers backed off after being excoriated in the media for beating up on kids. So now we have fan-created Wizard Rock. Awesome.

The Nebula controversy over fan-produced Star Trek: Phase II is an awards tempest in a writers’ teapot but it points to a looming change in what constitutes a ‘professional’ production in the age of the Web.

Apparently, Evil Wikipedians use their powers of Donating A Lot of Their Free Time to keep down the masses who only want a reliable place to get their questions answered. Oh, wait — everyone’s getting what they want. So why’s Slate claiming Wikipedia is The Man keepin’ The People down?

People still want to see movies made by people who love making them. But their appetite simply isn’t going to be satisfied in the venue of Hollywood’s preference.

“No wonder that girls post aggressive warnings on their sites such as, ‘Do not jock, copy, steal, or redistribute any of my stuff!’ or, more to the point: ‘hotlink and die.’”
— New York Times

“Now, if you were a Jumper, where would you jump to? Would you be leaping deeper into suffering, or would you be leaping out of it?”
— ‘Bodhiwood’ review of the movie Jumper on the Buddhist Channel.

“It’s an amazing opportunity to play an iconic Star Trek character first realized by George Takei, who is a personal hero of mine. And after John Lim’s performance in ‘World Enough and Time,’ I know I have big shoes to fill.”
— J.T. Tepnapa

When BetaNews asked Blu-ray manufacturers why they rushed inferior players to market, they blamed HD-DVD: “We should have waited another year to introduce Blu-ray to the public, but the format war changed the situation.” HD-DVD was coming; Blu-ray had no choice but to launch.